* John Lennon's son to sell NFTs, keep physical memorabilia
* Payment accepted in cryptocurrencies including dogecoin
By Elizabeth Howcroft
LONDON, Jan 25 (Reuters) - John Lennon's son Julian is
auctioning off pieces of memorabilia relating to the Beatles,
including three guitars given to him by his father and
handwritten notes about the 1968 song 'Hey Jude' - but not
physically.
Instead, the auction is a sale of non-fungible tokens
(NFTs), a type of digital asset. Each winning bidder will be
able to claim ownership of a digital file described as an
"audio/visual collectible" in which Julian Lennon narrates a
"specific heartfelt memory".
"I feel incredibly lucky to live in a day and age where
innovation allows me to share such personal pieces of my Lennon
family history," said Julian Lennon, who is a singer-songwriter,
writer and artist.
"Through this NFT collection, I'm able to grant exclusive
access to special items that I cherish and carry on the legacy
of my father in a new way."
Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) use blockchain to record who owns
a digital file, such as an image, video or text.
Although NFTs are sometimes sold alongside physical items,
as a sort of digital certificate of authenticity, owning an NFT
does not confer ownership of the underlying item - rather, it
can be thought of as a kind of digital bragging rights https://www.reuters.com/technology/what-are-nfts-2021-11-17/#:~:text=An%20NFT%20is%20a%20digital,authenticity%20and%20who%20owns%20it.
Such sales have nevertheless exploded in popularity, with
NFT artworks selling for millions of dollars.
In this case, the buyers of the Beatles NFTs will not
receive a guitar or physical piece of paper. What they will get
is a unit of blockchain data recording that their crypto wallets
own an NFT linked to a digital file showing the item.
So for the 'Hey Jude' notes, which show Paul McCartney's
doodles and drawings, the buyer will receive an NFT of an image
of the object "brought to life in an even more personal way
through Julian Lennon's exclusive audio narration", the auction
website says.
Bids on this NFT were at $50,000 as of Tuesday afternoon.
The sale also includes an NFT representing an image of an
Afghan coat that John Lennon wore on the set of the 1967 film
"Magical Mystery Tour" and an NFT of an image of a black cape he
wore in the 1965 film "Help!". Bids on these were last at $8,000
and $6,000 respectively.
Surging interest in crypto assets https://www.reuters.com/markets/europe/nft-sales-hit-25-billion-2021-growth-shows-signs-slowing-2022-01-10
has led traditional auction houses such as Christie's into NFT
sales. The Lennon auction is run by Julien's Auctions and
YellowHeart NFT and closes on Feb. 7.
Bids can be placed online or at a physical auction in
Beverly Hills. Payments are allowed in various cryptocurrencies
including bitcoin, ether and dogecoin.
An unspecified portion of the proceeds will be donated to
the White Feather Foundation, which Julian Lennon said in a
Tweet would "offset" the carbon emissions linked to the auction
via a carbon removal marketplace called Nori.
The blockchain technology used for NFTs and cryptocurrencies
has been criticized for their large carbon footprint https://www.reuters.com/technology/how-big-is-bitcoins-carbon-footprint-2021-05-13s.
(Reporting by Elizabeth Howcroft; Editing by Sujata Rao and
Catherine Evans)